PHILADELPHIA — There were enough big plays, goal line stands and last-minute stops to keep a capacity crowd at Lincoln Financial Field standing most of Sunday afternoon.
The entertainment value was off the charts from the first snap to the last in the Eagles’ 28-23 win over the Dallas Cowboys, a game Birds fans are going to remember like The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption or The Longest Yard.
A trip to the bathroom and you missed something major. Like clutch back-to-back sacks by Eagles veteran Brandon Graham, a fourth-down pass breakup by oft-beaten cornerback James Bradberry inside the final two-minute warning, a redemptive touchdown run by Kenny Gainwell and four more Brotherly Shove conversions by Jalen Hurts, who shrugged off a hit to his ailing left knee to complete 17 of 23 passes for 207 yards and touchdowns to A.J. Brown (four yards) and DeVonta Smith (29).
Equally important were the little things Eagles center Jason Kelce spoke about on his 36th birthday. Like rookie Tyler Steen recovering a Hurts fumble with 59 seconds left, or Josh Sweat sacking Dak Prescott with 11 ticks to go on first down at the 11-yard line after Haason Reddick committed his first roughing the passer penalty of the season.
“I couldn’t watch their last series,” Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson said of the Cowboys. “It was one of those deals where you’re like, aging in dog years as the clock is running down.”
That the Eagles found a way to win is a testament to the plays they made down the homestretch in a game full of errors, bad judgement and the overzealous officiating crew of referee Tra Blake, who made everyone pause by calling a total of 20 penalties, 10 on each team, for 181 yards.
During the week Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni waxed poetic with sayings from the late Bobby Knight, the basketball coach who won an NCAA title at the Spectrum to complete a perfect season in 1976 with Indiana.
“Victory favors the team with the least mistakes,” Kelce said. “We heard it all week. We certainly had our share of mistakes. … The defense came up big and there’s a lot for us to clean up. But 8-1 is a good record and I’ll take it.”
The Cowboys led 14-7 in the second quarter and 17-14 at the intermission. Prescott shredded the Eagles’ secondary for 153 yards and two touchdown passes. After Hurts connected with Smith on a 29-yard score on the first possession of the third quarter to give the Eagles a 21-17 lead, Prescott had the Cowboys at the 27-yard line of Philly, where a holding penalty blew up the march and pushed the visitors back.
It was like that on the last Cowboys series as well. Just when the Eagles figured there was no way out for their guests, Prescott coaxed a 36-yard interference penalty on Bradberry, Reddick was flagged for roughing the passer and rookie Jalen Carter jumped offside. That put the ball at the Philly 11.
Thankfully for the Eagles, Josh Sweat stepped up with an 11-yard sack, and after a delay of game penalty the Cowboys had third-and-26 at the Birds’ 27-yard line. Even Prescott, who has an uncanny ability to keep the Cowboys in tight games, found no way around that. With five ticks left he lobbed a 23-yard pass to CeeDee Lamb, who was tackled four yards short of the goal line by Reed Blankenship.
Literally, a last play outcome.
“That’s football and being on the defensive side and winning the game means a lot,” Blankenship said. “It says a lot about our defense. We had a lot of mistakes last week. It was great for everybody to come together. We did our job on the back end and let those dogs (up front) run.”
Consecutive sacks of Prescott by Graham, who hadn’t had a sack all season kickstarted the closing effort. Graham was inspired by seeing Trey Burton, the teammate who threw the Philly Special scoring pass to Nick Foles in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII victory over the New England Patriots.
The Cowboys took away Brown, except for the touchdown grab. Though his streak of 100-yard receiving days ended, he went over 1,000 receiving yards on the season.
The Eagles Tush-Pushed the Cowboys almost into the Pro Shop, to the delight of the fans who didn’t miss a chance to continually chant about the Cowboys siphoning.
Possibly the biggest play was Graham’s hustle forcing Prescott, who reached the ball out, to step out of bounds an inch from the goal line. The Cowboys (5-3) tried it after getting within 28-23 with 6:30 left.
It doesn’t take long to do the math. A two-pointer would have put the Cowboys within field goals of the upset.
“You’re just running, trying to make sure that you do all you can,” Graham said. “I’m so happy he did because boy, they could have kicked a field goal and then kicked another field goal at the end. We probably wouldn’t be smiling as much.”
Blankenship, who made a touchdown-saving stop of Cowboys tight end Luke Schoonmaker at the goal line, can relate to that. The play originally was ruled a TD but overturned on appeal.
“Everybody says it’s a game of inches and that truly showed it’s a game of inches where one split inch and it isn’t a touchdown,” Blankenship said. “All those inches and we came out with a W.”
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment